IBM's Social Networking Push — With collaboration software called Lotus Connections, Big Blue competes with Microsoft as Web 2.0 expands into the business world — In the earlier days of computing, innovations that were created for corporations gradually seeped into consumer products.

Windows on the Mac changes everything — The kind of software sold by the formidable Parallels is transforming computing and challenging Steve Jobs, says Fortune's David Kirkpatrick. — NEW YORK (Fortune) — The lines between the Mac OS and Windows are starting to blur.

German, French groups want open iTunes — OSLO, Norway - German and French consumer groups have joined a Nordic-led drive to force Apple Inc. to make its iTunes online store compatible with digital music players made by rival companies, a Norwegian official said Monday.

WordPress 2.1 Ella — On behalf of the WordPress.org community of commiters, contributers, and volunteers, I'm very proud to announce the immediate availability of WordPress 2.1 "Ella", named for jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald. Here's a sampling of what's in the new version:

Google to run video ads from BMG, Warner — SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc. (Nasdaq:GOOG - news) said on Monday it would expand testing of its much-anticipated video advertising system by working with two major music labels to embed video ads on Web sites that make money running them.

Blu-Ray DRM Cracked — The plaintext exploit used to partially crack HD-DVD a couple of weeks ago was brought to bear on Blu-Ray by the same gents this weekend—and it worked a treat. — "We need to kick DRM in the butt!" declares the sigfile of Doom9 forum poster Janvitos, launching his inspection of the format.

22% of Windows Installs Non-Genuine — Microsoft disclosed Monday that over one in five Windows installations were deemed non-genuine through the company's Windows Genuine Advantage program, which requires users to validate their operating system before downloading updates from the company.

MySpace sues Spam King — You'll never guess what for... MySpace.com has sued self-proclaimed spam king Scott Richter for allegedly using compromised user accounts to send millions unsolicited ads touting ringtones, polo shirts among other things. — We were surprised - nay shocked - when we heard the identity of the defendant.

Is a Business Plan Necessary? — Before you dedicate your life to crafting a business plan the length of a book, read these two paragraphs from the 1/9/07 edition of the Wall Street Journal in an article called "Enterprise: Do Start-ups Really Need Formal Business Plans"

Cracking Down on Mixtape CDs — Not long before Christmas, Jeff Baker, the chief of police of Morrow, Ga., a small town just south of Atlanta, and one of his officers were walking through a local shopping mall when they happened to pass a kiosk hawking rap music CDs. One in particular caught their attention.

TechCrunch Referral Traffic — In response to a couple of inquiries, here are the top 11 sources of TechCrunch traffic in December 2006 (via Google Analytics): — Digg remains a very important site for overall TechCrunch traffic. I'm surprised by how much traffic BBC and TechMeme sends our way.

The 5 sins of Vista — Since Vista was released to MSDN subscribers back in November I have started using it on my primary development laptop. I would love to run it in a VMWare session while I am developing, but it is still not possible to get Areo Glass to run this way …

Strike the Phrase "Social Media" from the Lexicon — With the democratization of media we've come to rely on a bunch of terms that are now completely unnecessary. These include "social media," "user generated content" and - my favorite - "consumer generated media." Do any of these matter any more?

A new crop of kids: Generation We — When Amy Jo Kim's son Gabriel says he wants to "watch videos," she knows he doesn't mean DVDs or television. He wants YouTube. — Gabriel, an intensely curious kid who's about to turn 8, has been fascinated by everything from skateboarding and basketball …

Google Germany Gone Kaput? — Reader Michiel Ouwerkerk just dropped an email to say that Google Germany has disappeared. Sure enough, when I go there, I get a holding page from what looks to be hosting company Goneo: — The message reads (umlauts and other German punctuation omitted, sorry!)

Performancing Partners to close — I'm sad to tell you that Partners has to close. While I have every faith it could have worked, it wasn't going to happen fast enough. Without more money invested it wasn't going to happen at all. — Any ads currently in the system will continue …